Maria, We Just Met A Girl Named Maria

We are exhausted! We woke up at 4 a.m. and started on our drive to meet Masha (Maria). We had to first stop in the town that her orphanage is in, which is Kotovsk. She was not there because she is in a "camp" for the summer. We went to her orphange to meet with the director and caretakers to learn a bit more about her. We also picked up the Inspector for Kotovsk. He needed to accompany us to Odessa to watch our interactions with Masha. He then writes a report on his recommendation for the adoption. We didn't reach the "camp" in Odessa until almost 5:30 p.m.

We met Masha in the lobby. She was a bit shy and embarassed at first. Soon, Brynn was speaking to her in Russian and letting her take pictures with her digital camera. Masha was enthralled. We only visited with her for about 30 min. She was delightful! We've already seen a sense of humor-Thank God!! At the end of our visit, our translator asked her if she wanted us to continue visiting her. She let her know that we are interested in adopting her. Masha smiled and said, "Da!" We will go back and visit her twice a day for the next week or so. We are all in agreement that we will start the paperwork process tomorrow.

We then drove around until we found a place to stay. We are in a great apartment in the center of Odessa. What a beautiful part of town! The Black Sea is just blocks away. We walked around a bit tonight and will do more exploring over the next week.

I can't wait to tell you more about her. One thing-she's not as small as I thought she would be. She's about average for her age. Keep us in your prayers. I think they have been working very well.